Lake Mary Agrees To Study Fire Fighting Pact With County

SANFORD — Lake Mary commissioners said last week that a proposal for joint operation of a new fire station with the county is worthy of further study.

With only Commissioner George Duryea dissenting, the board Thursday night instructed its staff to report back within a month on cost projections and other details.

Lake Mary Commissioner Randy Morris has hashed out a proposal with county Commissioner Bob Sturm for the city and county to split the cost of building a new fire station on Longwood-Lake Mary Road and to share the burden of staffing it with firefighters and paramedics. Morris wants the county to advance Lake Mary its share.

Morris is also asking the county to train city firefighters and to provide new radio equipment. The county generally supplies radio hardware at no cost for cities that enter into first-response agreements.

Under such a pact, which the county already has with Altamonte Springs, Longwood and Winter Springs, the nearest fire station responds to a call -- regardless of political boundaries.

This means, for example, that the county's Heathrow station would answer a call in Timacuan, while the city would cover fires and other emergencies in the Crossings, which is outside city limits.

The commission asked its staff to research the successes and failures of first-response agreements and to confer with county officials on how the program could be implemented.

County public safety director Gary Kaiser, who has expressed reservations about signing a first-response agreement that would rely on the city's volunteer firefighters, said Friday he is awaiting a more specific proposal from the city before he can determine how well it would work.

Morris has said the city should augment its volunteers with, perhaps, two paid firefighters.

Commissioner Thomas Mahoney said Friday that he likes the idea of finding ways to make the city's volunteer department more effective. He agreed that the best time to explore city-county cooperation is now -- before the city proceeds with plans to build a new fire station on Rhinehart Road.

Under Morris' plan, the city would drop its plans for a fire station on Rhinehart Road but would go ahead with construction of police headquarters and a communications center there. That facility is now being designed.

Duryea could not be reached Friday for comment on his reasons for objecting to the plan.